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  • What: KYC compliance process for renting Indian phone numbers: required documents, application steps, and post-approval number rental
  • Requires: India data region account (cannot be changed post-creation), plus any one of these documents: GST Certificate, Certificate of Incorporation (COI), or Udyam Registration Certificate
  • First application: Must be signed by an authorized signatory and carry a visible company seal — Plivo uses it to fetch your billing address and GST details (if provided)
  • Timeline: Automated review — acceptance or rejection typically within 5 minutes (080/022 numbers). 140-series and 160-series numbers have a separate SLA.
  • Number types: Landline series for non-BFSI (service/transactional only); 140-series for promotional calls (additional setup required); 160-series for BFSI service and transactional calls (additional setup required)
  • Common rejection: Registration inactive or unverifiable in government records, expired document, unaccepted document type (PAN alone is not accepted), or an unreadable upload
KYC compliance is required before renting Indian phone numbers. This guide covers the documents, application process, and post-approval steps.
India Data Region Required: Indian phone numbers are only available to India data region organizations. If your organization is in the US data region, you cannot rent Indian numbers. Data region cannot be changed after an organization is created — create a new organization with the India data region from the organization switcher in the Plivo Console (no new signup needed).

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KYC Documents Required

Submit any one of the following documents: Plivo verifies the document against government records, so upload a current copy downloaded from the issuing portal. Business PAN alone is not accepted.
Your first compliance application must be sealed and signed. The document must be signed by an authorized signatory and carry a visible company seal. Plivo uses this first application to fetch your billing address and GST details (if provided). You can update these details later by submitting relevant proofs on the Organization Settings page in the Plivo console.
Common rejection reasons:
  • The registration is cancelled, suspended, or inactive in government records
  • The document details don’t match government records — download the latest copy from the GST, MCA, or Udyam portal and resubmit
  • The document is expired
  • The document isn’t one of the three accepted types (for example, business PAN alone)
  • The upload is blurry, cropped, or incomplete
  • The first application isn’t sealed and signed

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Submit Compliance Application

  1. Navigate to Compliance Application
  2. Click Create Application
  3. Select India and click Continue
  4. Upload any one of: GST Certificate, Certificate of Incorporation, or Udyam Registration Certificate (sealed and signed if this is your first application)
  5. Select business type (Direct Brand or Reseller)
  6. Submit
For 080/022 numbers, review is automated — you receive an acceptance or rejection typically within 5 minutes. 140-series and 160-series numbers have a separate SLA — see 140-series provisioning and 160-series provisioning.

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Business Types

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Application Status

Renting an India number and placing calls from an India number both require a compliance application in accepted status (shown as Approved in the Console). If an API error directed you to this page, find your application under Compliance Application and follow the next steps for its status: If your number has no compliance application attached, submit an application and attach it to the number (update compliance).

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Rent Numbers After Approval

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Direct Brands

  1. Go to Buy Phone Numbers
  2. Select India
  3. Compliance application links automatically

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Resellers

  1. Ensure your customer’s compliance application is approved
  2. During rental, select the appropriate compliance application
  3. Application must be approved beforehand

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Update Compliance on Existing Numbers

Use this when a number is transferred between customers or the business entity using the number changes. Option 1:
  1. Go to Active Numbers
  2. Select numbers
  3. Click Choose Action > Update Compliance
  4. Select compliance application
  5. Click Save
Option 2:
  1. Click on specific number
  2. Select compliance from dropdown

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Why does my call fail with “from parameter is invalid … is not associated with your account”?

Calls from India numbers must originate from a number rented on your Plivo account — you can’t use an arbitrary caller ID. Rent an India number (see Rent Numbers After Approval) and place calls from that number.

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Why does my call fail with “compliance application is not in ‘accepted’ status”?

The from number’s compliance application isn’t approved yet — it’s pending, submitted, rejected, expired, or no application is attached to the number. Find the application under Compliance Application and follow the next steps for its status in the Application Status table. If the error says the application is 'suspended', the cause is unresolved UCC complaints — see UCC Management for how to lift the suspension.

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Why does renting a number fail with “compliance_application_id is required”?

Your account has no accepted compliance application for Plivo to attach automatically. Submit a compliance application, wait for approval, and retry — or pass the UUID of an accepted application in the compliance_application_id parameter of the Buy a Phone Number request.

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Why does renting a number fail with “Compliance application must be in ‘accepted’ status”?

The application you passed in compliance_application_id isn’t approved yet — the error shows its current status. Follow the next steps for that status in the Application Status table, then retry once the application is approved.